This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

Police must stop the over-sharing of information related to suicide attempts that has led to Canadian travellers being turned away at U.S. border, says Ontario’s privacy commissioner.

In the wake of a Star probe last December, Ann Cavoukian on Monday released a 48-page report criticizing the routine uploading of such confidential health records through the Canadian Police Information Centre (CPIC) database.

Privacy commissioner Ann Cavoukian is calling on police to stop sharing information about suicide attempts except for rare case, such as when an attempt involves the threat of violence to others. (Matthew Sherwood for The Toronto Star)

“Can you imagine? Imagine yourself in that situation,” an incredulous Cavoukian told a Queen’s Park news conference. “It’s completely unacceptable and it should not continue.”

The privacy watchdog’s report was spurred by the case of Toronto’s Ellen Richardson, who was refused entry to the U.S. last November because of a “mental illness episode” she had in June 2012.

Richardson was at Pearson International Airport hoping to board a flight for New York City before heading on a 10-day Caribbean cruise, for which she had paid about $6,000.

Article Continued Below

She was joining a March of Dimes group of about a dozen other Canadians.

But a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent with the Department of Homeland Security would not let her into the country.

Richardson, a paraplegic, was told by she would need “medical clearance” by a U.S.-approved doctor before she could go stateside.

She was baffled about how the American government knew about her personal health difficulties, including what she called a “half-hearted” suicide attempt two years ago and a previous bid in 2001.

“I was turned away, I was told, because I had a hospitalization in the summer of 2012 for clinical depression,” she told the Star last fall.

“I was so aghast. I was saying, ‘I don’t understand this. What is the problem?’ ”

Cavoukian said the first concern was that the Ontario Ministry of Health had somehow shared such information.

Article Continued Below

But Health Minister Deb Matthews provided a sworn affidavit that her department does not do that, earning praise from the privacy commissioner.

It turned out that Richardson’s data — and that of at least three other Ontarians — was given to the U.S. via the CPIC repository.

“To be clear, not all police services do this,” said Cavoukian, noting Ontario Provincial Police, and the forces in Hamilton, Ottawa, and Waterloo exercise discretion.

However, she castigated Toronto police for doing so and questioned the department’s rational that mental health experts recommend it.

“Today I am calling upon all police services across Ontario to immediately to cease the automatic uploading and disclosure of personal information relating to threats of suicide or attempted suicide,” said Cavoukian.

The only exceptions to that should be: if the suicide attempt involved the threat of violence to others; if it was “an intentional provocation of a lethal response by police;” if the person has a history of violence, or had attempted to kill themselves while in custody.

Otherwise, she said, “it’s none of their business.”

Toronto police spokesman Mark Pugash disputed Cavoukian’s claim that the force does not exercise discretion with such information, stressing not all cases are automatically uploaded to the CPIC database.

“It’s looked at closely,” he said, adding only the names of those seen as a possible threat to public safety are entered.

Camille Quenneville, CEO of the Ontario arm of the Canadian Mental Health Association, said Cavoukian’s report proves the need for more study of what is done with such information.

“Mental health police records are not criminal records and should not be treated as such,” said Quenneville.

More from The Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com